Despite state ruling, suit forges ahead in Saugus

A state certification committee has dismissed a complaint against Saugus Building Commissioner Fred Varone, finding former local inspector John Cottam’s allegations of forgery and threats to be “frivolous.””This committee finds that Cottam’s allegations are frivolous and appear to stem from a motivation to retaliate against Commissioner Varone as a member of an office from which he was terminated.”But a civil case filed by Cottam against Varone, the Town of Saugus and individual selectmen remains open, and Cottam’s attorney said the case will enable him to prove allegations in the complaint to the state and further wrongdoing.”We have a wealth of information that was not presented to the committee, and we can prove the allegations in the complaint including the forgery,” Attorney Andrew Gambaccini said Tuesday.The allegations stem from the political turmoil of the recall effort, with Cottam alleging he was viewed as an ally of Scott Crabtree – the former town manager who was reinstated after the January recall of the town’s Board of Selectmen – and that he’d angered the board that was in place at the time by issuing fines to one of the selectmen subject to last March’s recall.Crabtree hired Cottam in November 2013 as a code enforcement officer, just before a new board of selectmen took over. Cottam subsequently submitted material to the building committee to be certified as a building inspector, but in a March 2014 hearing, the committee asked for more details on Cottam’s work history before Cottam could take the exam. Cottam submitted an updated resume, and the committee approved the extension at its April 2014 meeting.By October 2014, however, Crabtree was fired, and the recall effort was in full swing. One of the charges against Crabtree was he was unauthorized in hiring Cottam, according to the lawsuit.Also in October, Cottam issued fines to former Selectman Paul Allan concerning political lawn signs. Varone told Cottam to stop, as the signs were legal under town bylaws, according to the building committee’s findings of fact. Afterwards, Varone and Cottam stopped talking, and Cottam was put on probation for refusing to communicate with his boss.In a Nov. 26 complaint to the building committee, Cottam accused Varone of forging Cottam’s signature on two citations dated June 18, 2014 and June 30, 2014. Cottam also accused Varone of threatening to block Cottam from getting an extension to take a certification exam and getting a new job unless Cottam hands over the copies of those citations.After a Feb. 5 incident in Town Hall where an employee allegedly felt it necessary to separate Cottam and Varone before they began physically fighting, Cottam was fired.The building committee held a hearing on March 4 where Varone and Cottam testified about the allegations.The committee noted that Varone and Cottam had completely different handwriting and that Varone had no need to forge the signatures. They agreed with Varone’s testimony that he had written the citations for instructional purposes. Upset that Crabtree was fired, Cottam issued the citations to Allan, the committee ruled. When Cottam was ordered to stop, he stopped speaking to Varone and decided to retaliate, the committee ruled.”It appears that Cottam decided to go back in his citation book and retrieve the citations written in Varone’s hand in order to lodge a forgery complaint on rather thin evidence,” the commissioners wrote in an April 22 ruling. “That thin evidence did not withstand even mild scrutiny.”Moreover, the committee members noted they did not even know Varone and had, in fact, approved an extension for Cottam to take the test, according to the ruling.”The committee finds Cottam’s testimony to be highly unreliable for both issues raised in the complaint,” the building committee wrote in their ruling. “Cottam was combative toward Varone and his counsel during the hearing and his version of events is simply not credible on its face?By contrast, Varone was conside